OKRs pair a qualitative objective—the change a team wants—with measurable key results that show whether the change happened. The examples below cover marketing, sales, HR, product and engineering, onboarding, customer success, and company-wide planning. Treat every number as an illustration from the cited publisher, then replace it with your own baseline, time period, and capacity.
What makes an OKR effective?
An objective states a meaningful direction in plain language. Key results provide evidence of progress or achievement. A useful set is small enough to focus attention: Atlassian describes two to four key results as ideal in one guide and three to five in its team play, so use those as practical ranges rather than a rule. See Atlassian’s OKR team play and Asana’s step-by-step guide.
- Objective: qualitative, direct, and tied to a priority—for example, “Make onboarding feel effortless for new customers.”
- Key result: a measurable change, such as reducing time-to-first-value from a defined baseline to a target by the end of the cycle.
- Guardrail: a quality, customer, or risk measure that prevents a volume target from rewarding harmful behavior.
“Publish five web pages” or “hold five webinars” records work completed. A change in qualified traffic, conversion, retention, or customer behavior is an outcome. Activity measures can still be useful as supporting indicators, but they should not be the only proof that the objective was achieved.
Marketing OKR example
Objective: Grow brand awareness in target markets
Asana gives this illustrative example:
- Increase organic website traffic by 40% quarter over quarter.
- Add 5,000 email subscribers during the quarter.
- Publish 12 thought-leadership articles by quarter end.
The article count is an output. Before adopting it, pair it with a reach or qualified-demand measure—such as target-account engagement, non-branded search impressions, or marketing-qualified leads—and verify that your analytics can establish a comparable starting point. These figures are sample targets, not recommended benchmarks. Source: Asana’s 2026 OKR template.
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Sales OKR example
Objective: Increase sales revenue predictably
Atlassian’s example includes increasing revenue by 10% in Q3 and another 10% in Q4, moving 25% faster on qualified leads, and closing more customers. Adapt it only after defining:
- the revenue baseline and whether the target is bookings, recognized revenue, or another measure;
- the exact meaning of “qualified lead” and how speed is calculated;
- whether the revenue key results overlap, so the same deal is not counted twice;
- a quality guardrail, such as retention, discount rate, win quality, or customer fit.
The numbers are publisher examples rather than evidence of a universal sales-growth rate. Source: Atlassian’s OKR examples.
HR and people-team OKR example
Objective: Improve employee engagement and retention
Asana illustrates this objective with the following key results:
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- Reduce voluntary turnover from 18% to 10%.
- Launch a mentorship program with 50 participants.
Launching a program and counting participants are activity or reach indicators. Keep them only if they help explain the outcome, and measure whether engagement or retention changes for the intended population. Define survey wording, response rate, employee groups, and the turnover period before setting the target. Source: Asana’s 2026 OKR template.
Product and engineering OKR example
Objective: Deliver a faster, more reliable product experience
Asana’s example combines delivery and operational performance:
- Reduce average page-load time from 3 seconds to under 1.5 seconds.
- Achieve 99.9% uptime.
- Ship three requested features.
Set the performance baseline with a stated measurement method, percentile, device or region scope, and time window; “average” can conceal slow experiences for a subset of users. Treat feature shipment as an output and pair it with adoption, task success, defect rate, or customer value. The 99.9% figure is an illustrative target attributed to Asana’s 2026 template, not an industry standard. Source: Asana’s 2026 OKR template.
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Customer-onboarding OKR example
Objective: Make the first customer outcome faster and easier
Asana’s June 10, 2026 guide offers these example key results:
- Reduce time-to-first-value from 14 days to seven days.
- Increase onboarding completion from 65% to 85%.
- Reach an onboarding satisfaction score of 4.5 out of 5.
Define “first value,” the cohort included, and the start and end events before measuring. A completion rate can rise while customers still struggle, so review satisfaction and support contacts alongside it. The 14-to-seven-day target is an attributed illustration, not a benchmark. Source: Asana’s setting-OKRs guide.
Customer-success and support OKR example
Objective: Improve customer satisfaction without sacrificing service quality
Atlassian’s illustrative key results include:
- Reach an NPS of at least 50.
- Keep response time under two hours.
- Increase retention by 10%.
Specify the NPS survey population and collection period, distinguish first response from full resolution, and define the retention denominator and interval. Faster replies can still produce poor outcomes, so add a resolution-quality or repeat-contact measure where necessary. “NPS of 50 or higher” is Atlassian’s sample target, not a universal customer-success standard. Source: Atlassian’s OKR play.
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Organization-wide OKR example
Objective: Focus the company on durable, customer-valued growth
A company-level OKR should describe the strategic change, not a list of departmental projects. A team might translate it into key results such as:
- Increase revenue from the defined target segment by a baseline-validated percentage during the cycle.
- Improve retention for that segment over the stated period.
- Raise a customer-value measure, such as successful adoption of a core workflow.
Each function can then own contributing OKRs while preserving a visible link to the company objective. Do not invent a target from the examples above: establish current performance, available capacity, and the cycle length first. Templates for crafting and tracking objectives are available from What Matters.
How to adapt an example to your team
- Name the change: Write one direct objective that explains why the work matters.
- Check the baseline: Record the current value, data source, population, unit, and measurement window for every proposed key result.
- Choose a small set: Select a few results that, taken together, would demonstrate the objective. Remove duplicates and vanity metrics.
- Convert tasks into outcomes: Replace “launch,” “publish,” or “hold” with the customer, business, quality, or delivery change expected from that work.
- Add a guardrail: If increasing speed, volume, or conversion could damage quality, include a defect, satisfaction, refund, safety, or retention measure.
- Test feasibility: Ask whether the metric is available and whether the target is ambitious but plausible with the people, budget, and dependencies actually available.
- Assign ownership and a review rhythm: Name one accountable owner for each result and agree how updates will be recorded.
Cycles, check-ins, and scoring
Quarterly cycles are a common starting point in the cited guidance, but the right period depends on how quickly your team can influence the measure. Review progress regularly—monthly reviews are one practice described by the sources—and use shorter check-ins when a result can move rapidly. A review should explain the current value, trend, evidence, blockers, and any change in assumptions; it should not become a status list of tasks.
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Scoring is not standardized. Asana describes a 0.0–1.0 scale, while Atlassian discusses stretch-goal scoring and uses a 0.7 assumption in an example. Choose one method, document it before the cycle, and avoid treating a score as a performance ranking without considering context. As Atlassian CRO Cameron Deatsch puts it: “With OKRs, success is a gradient. It is not black and white.” See Atlassian’s guide for its approach.
Common OKR mistakes to avoid
- Too many objectives: A long list hides the priorities the team must actually choose.
- Task-only key results: Completion proves activity, not that the intended change occurred.
- Unqualified numbers: A percentage without a baseline, population, period, or definition cannot be audited.
- Conflicting incentives: Optimizing speed or volume alone can increase defects, churn, or support demand.
- Copying benchmarks: Publisher examples illustrate structure; they do not establish what your team should achieve.
- Infrequent review: Waiting until the end of a cycle removes the chance to address blocked or misleading measures.
Further OKR templates and reading
For reusable worksheets and examples, see What Matters’ OKR templates, its examples of key results, and its guide to writing OKRs. Its rollout guidance is available at How to roll out OKRs for the first time. The same organization points readers to Measure What Matters by John Doerr for additional reading.
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